Multi-pin connectors, each comprising a male plug and a female receptacle, are widely used to establish contacts between selected conductors of different printed circuits.
In manufacturing a multi-pin connector, a housing first is formed by molding, and pin terminals are inserted into the molded housing by pressure. In shipping or warehousing multi-pin connectors, however, they are liable to be subjected to undesired external forces prior to being used, with the result that some of the pin terminals can become bent, thus causing irregular spacings between the pin terminals and preventing the male and female parts from mating together.
In an attempt to prevent such undesirable bending, a pin spacer having the same number of holes as the number of pin terminals of a male plug, and at the same pitch as the pin terminals, has been proposed. This pin spacer is attached to the pin terminals of the male plug by insertion of the pin terminals into the holes of the pin spacer.
When the pin terminals of the male plug are inserted into the pin holes of a female receptacle, the pin spacer will be driven backwards by the female receptacle until it has been pushed against the front face or end of the housing of the male plug, whereby the pin spacer will be sandwiched between the male and female parts.
This type of pin spacer has been long used and has been found to be satisfactory. However, such pin spacers still have the following defects:
1) Manufacturing and storage of multi-pin connectors with such pin spacers are difficult and manufacturing costs are high. This is because a relatively complicated mold must be used to make perforated pin spacers, the pin spacers must be assembled with male plugs by insertion of the pin terminals of the plugs into the pin holes of the pin spacers, and a jig must be used to put a pin spacer on the pin terminals of each plug at a desired position;
2) Automatization of the manufacturing of plug-and-pin spacer assemblies is very difficult; and
3) Certain terminal pins of a plug have different resistances against insertion into corresponding pin holes of the pin spacer. This is, for instance, attributable to irregular sizes of the pin holes of the pin spacer or attributable to bending of some of the pin terminals. As a result, some pin terminals fail to fit the inner circumferences of the pre-formed holes of the pin spacer, and, consequently, the pin spacer is somewhat slanted when mounted to the plug. When this happens, subsequent insertion of the terminal pins of the plug into the pin holes of the receptacle will cause the pin spacer to move at an inclined posture towards the front wall of the plug, preventing complete fitting of the male plug and female receptacle.